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Image of the day 12/25/2023

    New Discovery: Falls 8 - The Phoenix Nebula, Bray Falls
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    New Discovery: Falls 8 - The Phoenix Nebula

    Image of the day 12/25/2023

      New Discovery: Falls 8 - The Phoenix Nebula, Bray Falls
      Powered byPixInsight

      New Discovery: Falls 8 - The Phoenix Nebula

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      Falls 8, the Phoenix Nebula, is an absolutely massive and faint nebula of unexplained origin in the constellation Phoenix. It has a total size of about 1.7 degrees, and given its location extremely far off the galactic equator, it is a truly strange and rare nebula. 

      The central star of the nebula appears to be GALEX J014721.3-440504, a very very ultraviolet hot white dwarf candidate star. Eric Mamajek on Twitter left this interesting note: 

      "only 6 stars in white dwarf catalog of Gentile Fusillo+2021 (2021MNRAS.508.3877G) within 1 kpc are both bluer and brighter, and include interesting list: central stars of M97/Owl Neb, NGC1360/Robin's Egg Neb, Jacoby 1, PG1159(!), PG1151-029 and GD1532. Someone should get a spectrum to get Teff - SED is so hot, models suggest >40,000K (plenty of UV) but could be way hotter. UV, visible, IR don't constrain it well other than "hot!"."

      I discovered this nebula while imaging my other discovery in Phoenix, Falls object 3. The two nebulae are very close together, enough to fit in a 135mm lens field of view ;) This one of course took preference given its size. I named it "The Phoenix Nebula" because it is by far the most dominating feature of the entire Phoenix constellation. In the same way that Orion inherits the constellation name, this one will inherit the Phoenix name. 

      This thing is faint faint faint. The Ha is extremely faint, probably the weakest Ha signal I have ever imaged. The Oiii itself wasn't the worst in the world in terms of faintness. All the data was acquired from Hakos astro farm with the fsq85, and I am really starting to feel the slowness of f/5 with these objects. 

      I hope you all enjoy the image!

      Note: Unlike most of my other probably PN discoveries, this one I am posting and giving a name without registration on PNnet. This nebula was rejected for registration due to new limitations on approval for PN submissions. Given the very strange morphology, this nebula no longer can be registered by these means, so I am just giving it my own name, number, and catalog.

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      New Discovery: Falls 8 - The Phoenix Nebula, Bray Falls